As God's redeemed people created by God as tripartite persons, we are to be saved in the divine life of Christ who is the embodiment of the processed Triune God (Rom. 5:10b). We have been washed, redeemed, justified, and reconciled. Now our need is to be saved in His life. What we have received has brought us into grace, peace, and the enjoyment of God. This is wonderful, but there are still so many negative things within us and around us. While we are standing in grace, walking in peace, and enjoying God in tribulation, we often say, "Hallelujah!" Then after just a short time, we may lose our temper. This is because of the law of sin.
The law of sin is a real bondage to us; therefore, we need to be saved. We need to be saved not only from the law of sin but also from the world. The department stores, the advertisements in the newspapers, and the places of entertainment promote the modern fashion of the world. The worldly entertainment is full of many contagious germs. We need to be saved from the modern age that can contaminate us.
In one sense, because of our experience of reconciliation, we do not have any problems. Yet in another sense, we still have many problems. For this reason, we need to be saved in the divine life. Christ's death has worked to the extent of reconciling us to God, but now our need is His saving life. This saving life is the divine life. The divine life is Christ as the embodiment of the processed Triune God. This life is saving us today.
Romans 5:12 through the end of the book of Romans covers eight items. To be saved in the divine life of Christ as the embodiment of the processed Triune God includes these items. First, to be saved in the divine life from the bondage, the slavery, of sin, the law of sin is by the release of the law of the consummated Spirit (Rom. 8:2). Second, to be saved in the divine life from the present age of the world is by the sanctification of the consummated Spirit (12:2a; 6:19b, 22b). Third, to be saved in the divine life from our natural being is by the transformation of the life-giving Spirit (12:2b). Fourth, to be saved in the divine life from individualism is by being built up in the Body of Christ (v. 5). Fifth, to be saved in the divine life from our self-likeness is by the conformation of the life-imparting Spirit (8:29b). Sixth, to be saved in the divine life from our body of humiliation is by the transfiguration in the virtue of the divine life (8:30c; Phil. 3:21; Rom. 8:11). The word virtue can denote excellent conduct or the excellent expression of certain attributes. It can also denote the power to carry out these excellent attributes. In this denotation, virtue is a kind of life power. In Luke 8, when the woman touched the fringe of the Lord's garment, virtue went out of Him to heal her (v. 46). That virtue was a kind of power. We will be transfigured in the virtuous power of the divine life. Seventh, to be saved in the divine life is to reign in the divine life (Rom. 5:17). We must reign in the divine life over sin, the world, Satan, the natural man, the self, and individualism in order to build up the organic Body of Christ. Eighth, to be saved in the divine life will result in the victory over Satan (16:20).
These eight items are the contents, the full definition, of how to be saved in the divine life, beginning from Romans 5:12 and going through the end of chapter sixteen. These eight items together give us a bird's-eye view of this entire section.